Droid Life » Windows Phonehttp://www.droid-life.com
An intense Android news community bringing you the latest in phones, rooting, apps, and reviews.Sat, 01 Aug 2015 18:19:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Report: Microsoft Smartwatch Incoming, Will Work With Android Phoneshttp://www.droid-life.com/2014/05/29/microsoft-smartwatch-android/
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/05/29/microsoft-smartwatch-android/#commentsThu, 29 May 2014 21:07:25 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=141576Report: Microsoft Smartwatch Incoming, Will Work With Android Phones is a post from: Droid Life
]]>According to sources of Forbes, Microsoft is working on a smartwatch that will work with not only Windows Phone devices, but Android phones and iPhones too. The report speculates that the watch could be here as soon as this summer to compete in a wearable market that Samsung has tried to get a jump start on.

Forbes’ sources claim that the watch will “draw on optical engineering expertise from Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect division” and be sensor-rich with features like constant-heart rate monitoring. Battery life could weigh-in somewhere around two days, which is similar to Samsung’s Gear devices.

The design might be similar to Samsung’s Gear Fit (our review), the fitness tracker that features a curved AMOLED display. Sources claim that the Microsoft watch will have a touch-screen that resembles a half-stick of gum, that is placed on the under side of a wrist to keep information displayed private.

Cross-platform compatibility could be a major advantage for Microsoft if this is all true. At this time, Samsung has locked their wearables to Galaxy devices. LG is also trying to enter the market with devices like the Lifeband Touch, which works on both iOS and Android devices, but LG has yet to put much of a marketing push behind it. In the end, I think the success of something like this from Microsoft will depend on functionality. Will it only be a fitness tracker or will it do more? Oh, and they better hurry before Android Wear and the Moto 360 show up.

If Microsoft put out a smarwatch or fitness band, would you consider it?

According to reports out of Bloomberg, Microsoft is holding discussions with HTC in hopes that the Taiwanese manufacturer will bake in Windows Phone right alongside the Android OS on select handsets. In turn, Microsoft will possibly waive the Windows Phone licensing fee, which will then give consumers the option of choosing a default OS on the phones. As weird as it sounds, HTC may try just about anything to turn its fortunes around, after posting less-than-ideal quarterly numbers.

Steve Ballmer and a team of high-level executives apparently took a trip recently to Beijing in order to discuss the deal, but there is no word on whether HTC agreed to such an offer or not. When Bloomberg reached out for comment from Microsoft and HTC, both companies declined to say anything on the matter.

We could see the potential benefit of dual-booting a Windows OS on an Android device, but to swap Android for Windows Phone completely? You must be joking. Do you think it’s a good idea for HTC to take Microsoft up on its offer? What’s the worst that could happen? If you are HTC, you can’t do much worse financially, right?

For the most part, Microsoft’s campaigns against Google, Android, and iOS that promote Windows Phone or their other products are all pretty lame. Think “Smoked by Windows Phone” or even those “Scroogled” spots. Not really the most clever of marketing ideas, to say the least. This new Lumia/Windows Phone 8 spot, on the other hand, is actually funny and worth a quick look.

In the spot, you’ll see iPhone users taking shots at Galaxy owners with their “enormous” phones and S Beam feature followed by comments made in return to grandmothers about being too young to own an iPhone. There are Apple logo tattoos, app availability trash talking, and even the thought that Samsung and Apple fanboys love the constant fighting. Silly.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2013/04/29/microsoft-pokes-fun-at-samsung-vs-apple-stereotypes-in-new-commercial-is-actually-pretty-funny/feed/108Review: Windows Phone 8, a Look at the Competitionhttp://www.droid-life.com/2012/12/21/review-windows-phone-8/
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/12/21/review-windows-phone-8/#commentsFri, 21 Dec 2012 15:43:58 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=92568Review: Windows Phone 8, a Look at the Competition is a post from: Droid Life
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For the past week I’ve been spending a lot of time with the HTC 8X on Verizon. The 8X is considered a signature Windows Phone, sporting a 4.3″ 720×1280 display, a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, NFC, dual band WiFi, LTE, Beats Audio, and an 8 MP 1080p shooter in back with a wide-angle 2.1 MP front camera. In short, Windows Phone has reached parity with Android and iOS in terms of specs.

When I last looked at Windows Phone I argued that while the operating system looks good and is certainly an improvement over Windows Mobile, the lack of apps, disappointing multi-tasking, and poor notification system kept Windows Phone from reaching feature parity with iOS and Android. Since then Android and iOS have propelled smartphone ownership to unprecedented levels while Windows Phone has remained a niche product in terms of market share. Read on to find out how Microsoft has changed Windows Phone for the better, what has stayed the same, and what Microsoft still needs to do to make Windows Phone succeed.

Software Design

Windows Phone 7 reinvented the design style that Microsoft began to push with Windows Media Center and the Zune by adding a more visual layer to a text-heavy user interface. The focus on text over images to represent UI has been slightly diminished in Windows Phone 8 with the option to shrink Live tiles down to just icons. That said, Windows Phone provides a nice balance between emphasizing text and icons at the same time.

Whether you like the stylistic choices or not, Microsoft has made an operating system that looks and feels consistent. Metro is not altogether different from the latest design choices being made by Google with Google Now, Gmail for iOS, and Google+. In fact, in many ways Windows Phone feels like what Google Now would be if it were a full operating system.

The Start screen is constantly flashing updated information in front of you in just about the right bites for you to chew. Everything looks clean and organized if not abrasively simple. Compared to the hyper-realistic design language found in iOS, Windows Phone 8 feels like a breath of fresh air even though it has essentially remained unchanged since Windows Phone launched back in 2010.

While the simplicity of Windows Phone sometimes works against its functionality, it presents a unique way to interact with the various sources of information in your life. Apps consolidate information across horizontal sections, encouraging you to explore the space. Large fonts summarize different sections of an app while icons flank the bottom portion of the screen. Again, this is not always the most functional method to display information, but it certainly makes Windows Phone stand out from the crowd. People who are looking for something that is simple but keeps them connected should find Windows Phone’s design appealing.

Start Screen

The updated Start screen was heralded by Microsoft as major improvement over the old Start screen. Microsoft is right that it is a major improvement, but it really should have been there from the beginning. In Windows Phone 7 and 7.5 you could rearrange the tiles on the Start screen, pin them and unpin them, but their size was decided by the app, not the user.

Microsoft is now giving users the ability to change the size of live tiles. This may seem like a minor change, but it’s an important one. On Windows Phone 7.x, the most amount of tiles you could see immediately after unlocking your screen was 8, whereas with Windows Phone 8 you could potentially see 28 live tiles upon unlocking your screen. This means that users can prioritize more apps towards the top of their Start screen.

The Start screen, while not tremendously different from the last iteration of Windows Phone, is far more useful now. That said, live tiles do not provide the same kind of customization or functionality as widgets. While widgets are not the superlative expression of functionality and productivity, they are often more useful than live tiles. For example, a Twitter widget can show you multiple mentions while a live tile only shows a preview of one notification (yes, you still often cannot see the full text of a notification from the live tiles).

The Start screen excels at giving users quick glances at information, but it still feels somewhat hampered by design choices that Microsoft made early on. Adjusting the size of live tiles in Windows Phone gives users the option to see more information, but Microsoft should have come up with a way to see more information on smaller live tiles. The smallest, icon sized icons will obviously be severely limited, but the medium sized icons that most apps default to could use some sort of scrolling mechanism to see more information from the Start screen. If the users wants to see everything they can always open the app, but being able to swipe through email headings or read more of a tweet than the first few words would make the Start screen far more useful.

Notifications

Notifications in general have remained completely unchanged since Windows Phone 7.5. If the screen is unlocked and an app received an update, you will see a toast notification at the top of the screen. Tap it and the respective app will launch and show you the update or swipe the update to the right to dismiss it (something iOS users are surely envious of).

On the lock screen there have been some improvements. For example, you can choose between the Calendar, Facebook, Twitter, Email, Messaging, and Phone apps to display detailed information on the lock screen with quick status notifications on the lock screen from the same group of apps. You may only chose one of those apps for the detailed notification and you can chose five of the remaining apps for quick status notifications on the lock screen. As far as I can tell developers do not have the option to tie their apps into detailed or quick status, which means the only way to see notifications if they occurred when you weren’t looking at your phone is to pin the app to the Start screen.

While some might say that pinned apps to the Start screen is just as good if not better than a full notification hub, I disagree. The Start screen is where I want to pin the apps that I used most. That is the screen that I will look at the most. While it is nice to have quick access to information from my most important apps, I don’t want the Start screen to double as a notification hub.

Notifications are a crucial part of a modern operating system. An operating system that is allegedly designed to let you get in, get out and get on with your life should have a clean, simple notification hub so users can actually see what is going on all in one place. Considering Microsoft’s emphasis on other information hubs, this omission is glaring. It would make a lot of sense for Microsoft to add a notification hub that is accessible from the Start screen by swiping to the right instead of forcing users to pin any app to their Start screen that might receive a notification. While it is nice that users can shrink down the tiles so they do not have to scroll through a huge Start screen to manually search for notifications, that is not a good solution for power users.

Multitasking

Multitasking has also remained largely unchanged. While you can now go back up to seven apps, the behavior is still inconsistent. Some apps are able to resume quickly while others are not. It is also still possible to have two instances of the same app appear in the severely limited multitasking screen. I did have some issue with the Settings app disappearing from the multitasking screen from time to time. I’m not sure if that was supposed to be a feature or if it’s a bug, but it was annoying. Multitasking is supposed to bring some consistency to your app experience, but Windows Phone does nothing of the sort.

While the multitasking screen looks nice (HTC Sense’s version of multitasking looks very similar), it would be even better if you could swipe apps away to close them. When Microsoft first revealed its iteration of multitasking on Windows Phone (yes, it actually launched without multitasking) many drew comparisons to webOS, but unlike webOS (and Android as of Ice Cream Sandwich) the multitasking screen is just to switch apps, not the manage them.

In theory, to close an app you simply relaunch it from the Start screen. Some apps like Rowi resume where you were when you launch them from the Start screen, but most apps launch a fresh instance if they are accessed from the Start screen. This sort of behavior should have been changed in Windows Phone 8. Android, iOS, and even webOS resume your session in an app when it is launched from your home screen or the app launcher. Microsoft should have just went all the way and stolen webOS’ card interface to mange apps.

Apps

Despite Microsoft’s efforts to coerce more developers to write apps for Windows Phone, the app ecosystem has not changed dramatically since Windows Phone 7.5 and the end of the smartphone beta test. Big name apps like Instagram, Tumblr, Pocket, Starbucks, Pandora (coming in 2013), Flipboard, Dropbox, Hulu, and YouTube are still missing. Sure, there are often third party apps that you can use to replace or use these services, but the fact that these kinds of apps are still missing is a huge problem.

To complicate things more, since many of these apps are unavailable in an official form, users are often forced to pay for apps that allow you to use the services instead of the free versions that would come from most of these companies. On top of that, many of the paid third party apps do not work well. There are certainly exceptions (BoxFiles for Dropbox, SBUX Card, YouTube Browser, Blueprints, etc.), but the experience is frustrating to say the least.

On a brighter note, the Microsoft has cleaned up the Windows Phone Store (formerly the Windows Phone Marketplace) so that searches bring up relevant apps. This was a huge problem back when I looked at Windows Phone 7.5, but thankfully a search for Twitter brings up Twitter apps first, then random apps that mention Twitter. Browsing through app sections like Top free and Picks for you also seem improved, offering better suggestions and a more curated experience.

While Microsoft has done a good job at bringing in a lot more big name apps and cleaning up the Store, it still has a lot of work ahead of it. With Google removing Exchange support for Gmail and refusing to make apps for Windows Phone, Microsoft is going to have to push harder to increase adoption. There are certainly plenty of great apps out there, but omissions like Instagram, Tumblr, and Pocket really do hurt Windows Phone’s image, and therefore their chances to succeed in the market.

Games

The game ecosystem has improved slightly since I used Windows Phone 7.5. There are more popular titles and a few more clones of popular titles from Android and iOS. Games are still hidden in the Games app instead of showing up with the rest of your apps. I’m not sure what Microsoft is trying to accomplish by siloing gaming apps into the Games hub, but it would be nice if there were at least an option to have games show up with the rest of your apps.

The improved hardware requirements for Windows Phone could encourage developers of heavier games to develop for Windows Phone, but games like Dead Space or Marvel vs Capcom 2 are still missing. In their place are a number of simpler games from Wordament by Microsoft to Angry Birds Star Wars to Sonic CD. While the games that I played performed well and I didn’t see any issues with games not resuming properly in my testing, the lack of titles was annoying.

The dearth of gaming titles on the mobile platform of a company that has its own console is embarrassing. The fact that there still isn’t a Halo FPS or even side scroller is maddening. Microsoft is literally leaving money on the table by making franchises like Halo console-only. I would be happier with the Windows Phone gaming options if I could at least get a decent number of classic Sega titles, but Sega only has four games available on Windows Phone (Sonic CD, Sonic 4 Episode I, Super Monkey Ball, and Super Monkey Ball 2). Had Microsoft reached deeper into their pockets, they may have been able to coerce Sega to release some exclusive titles to Windows Phone or at least to match their huge library on iOS. When a flailing company like Sega only has four games on your operating system, you know you’re in bad shape.

Camera

The camera software on Windows Phone 8 has received a number of improvements. In previous version of Windows Phone the camera had a video toggle on the top, a +/- toggle to zoom, and a settings button that opened the full settings pane. While it was a nice, minimalist look, it emphasized digital zooming a little too much considering any amount of digital zoom alone tends to distort an image noticeably.

Windows Phone 8 keeps the minimal design, but puts more useful features on the left of the display. Three dots mark the top of the right panel to drag out the full settings pane (which is much more consistent with the rest of Windows Phone’s behavior than Windows Phone 7.x’s version) followed by the video toggle, the front camera toggle, the flash toggle, and the lens toggle. Sliding out the Settings pane prompts you to chose between altering video and photo settings.

Photo settings in Windows Phone 7.x were rather minimal with a few unhelpful scenes to choose from, some effects, resolution options, metering mode, and flicker adjustment. In short, there was not a lot of emphasis placed on allowing the user to control the camera. Windows Phone 8, on the other hand, offers some of the same effects and resolution options, but adds white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation, sharpness, and ISO controls as well as the option to enable or disable face detection. While you obviously still dont’ have the kind of manual control you would expect from a full fledged camera, there are a lot more options available to enable you to take better shots.

One other neat feature in Windows Phone 8 is the ability to add third party lenses. Bing Vision (which is a barcode/QR code reader) comes built in, but other lenses are available in the Windows Phone Store. One free option, CamWow has a number of filters that can be live previewed and used to take goofy shots with swirling or pinhole or more serious shots with a black and white filter or stencil lens. While many of these are built into Windows Phone, the option to have third party developers build lenses that can be used straight from the camera app is great.

Maps

The maps experience will differ from device to device. On the 8X I had the built-in Maps app which is designed by Microsoft, but powered by Nokia Maps (much like the Maps app on iOS 5 and before was designed by Apple, but powered by Google Maps). On Nokia devices you will have their Nokia maps app as well as access to Nokia Drive, a voice navigation app with turn-by-turn directions. While Nokia drive will eventually be available to other devices, right now it is a Nokia exclusive, leaving the 8X with the VZ Navigator app (which appropriately is currently rated 2 out of 5 stars).

Overall the design of the Maps app is identical to before. You have access to an arial view (satellite), turn by turn directions, local scout for points of interest, and traffic conditions. Once nice little addition to the Maps app in Windows Phone 8 is the option to display WiFi hotspots. While that sort of information is not super relevant for most consumers, it’s a nice addition.

When getting directions in Windows Phone 7, tapping on each section of the directions would change the visual map and read out loud what the next step was. While tapping to see the next step is still enabled, voice over is gone in Windows Phone 8. This is undoubtedly in preparation for Nokia Drive to be made available to all Windows Phones, but in the mean time it means that non-Nokia Windows Phone 7 devices are actually better for navigation than non-Nokia Windows Phone 8 devices. It would have been nice to see Microsoft at least leave the old functionality in the app until Nokia Drive was released instead of abandoning users to VZ Navigator.

Overall the maps were accurate in my usage, but far less useful than Google Maps. In fact, I would prefer Apple Maps to the mapping solution provided with the HTC 8X. While Microsoft has touted Local Scout to find points of interest near your location, that data is not present by default when browsing through maps. Points of interest can be shown by tapping on Local Scout or initiating a search, but I had issues with some locations missing. In particular, my favorite Starbucks in my home town is missing altogether in Nokia Maps (it is accurately presented in Google Maps and on the wrong side of the street in Apple Maps). While Apple Maps is often derided for misinformation, I could have still seen the Starbucks from the street with Apple Maps; Nokia Maps doesn’t even acknowledge its existence.

Office

Microsoft Office has remained useful if you use SkyDrive, but not very useful otherwise. You can still create and sync Excel sheets and Word documents. You cannot make a PowerPoint presentation on your phone, but they will open and you can make some small edits. OneNote has its own app which does a good job syncing between the full desktop application. In fact, if you’re a student who relies on OneNote, the Windows Phone application is really nice.

For whatever reason Microsoft continues to tout Office as a huge advantage for Windows Phone users, but the reality of the situation is that Office for Windows Phone is only marginally better than Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on OS X. To make matters worse, Google offers Drive for free on Android and iOS with even more functionality than Office. Even Apple’s Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, which are $10 each, blow Office for Windows Phone out of the water. This says nothing of the other full productivity suites available on Android and iOS like Documents to Go and QuickOffice.

Most people are probably not using their phones to make major changes to documents, but at least on Android and iOS you have the power to do so. Sure, on a Windows 8 device you have the option to have the full Office experience, but it still isn’t really optimized for touch and it doesn’t deal with mobile emergency: having to make a major change to a document and not being able to on a Windows Phone. Considering how much Microsoft is pushing Office as a competitive advantage over Android and iOS, I would have hoped that they would have improved the Office experience instead of making it feel like a free trial.

Email, Calendar, Contacts

The email, calendar, and contacts experience remains relatively unchanged. Despite a larger, higher resolution display, the 8X still only displayed my most recent 5 emails (the same as my Trophy running Windows Phone 7.5). Apparently Microsoft employees don’t use email that often and think that 5 is an appropriate number of emails to display. Most of the display is taken up with giant text for each sender. The design is reflected in Outlook 2013 as well with giant text for the sender and regular sized text for the email preview (something I was able to disable in Outlook 2013, but not in Windows Phone 8). For casual users that might be fine, but for a business user (which should theoretically be a huge demographic for Microsoft), they want to be able to see as much information as possible.

Once you open an email you’re greeted with a large avatar for that user (provided you have an image in your contacts for that person), their name in giant text yet again, the subject in blue, regular sized text, followed by the metadata for the email and then the email’s actual text. Emails sent in HTML are squished to fit into the size of the display, which often means that portions of the email may be cut off or formatted incorrectly. Pinch-to-zoom is enabled, but it does not solve the problem of emails displaying incorrectly. Even turning the phone to landscape does not resolve the issue. This is an issue that has persisted since Windows Phone 7 and is yet another area that Microsoft, the company behind Exchange and Outlook, absolutely should have resolved before.

The Calendar app is a nightmare. It defaults to a day view, where you can scroll through each hour of the day to see what is going on today. A swipe to the left shows your whole agenda (which is actually useful) and another shows you your To-Do list. There is no week view. You can switch to a month view, which uses a .5 size font to let you know that something might be happening on a certain day, but in order to view anything you have to press on that day, leaving the month view.

This isn’t all that different from the stock Android calendar app, although at least there you have some semblance of a week view. Samsung’s calendar app on the Galaxy S III, while ugly, replicates the functionality of the calendar app in iOS, which gives you a month view in which you can select a date and see the day’s events all in the same view. There are third party apps in the Store (Live Calendar and Calendar[+] are both good options) that provide this functionality to make the calendar app more useful, but the built in app is essentially only good for its agenda view.

The People hub is essentially unchanged from before in terms of managing and browsing contacts. For casual social network users this has the potential to keep you posted on what your close friends are up to if they use Facebook and Twitter regularly. The idea is that it can be a one stop app to show you the important things going on in your friends and family’s lives. In my own practice I found it was easier to keep up in third party apps than to rely on the People hub, but again, this is clearly designed for casual social networkers.

One neat new feature for a group of friends or a family with Windows Phone is Rooms. Rooms is a new feature in the People hub that allows you to communicate with a group of people through chat, a shared calendar, photos, and notes. The app is clearly tailored towards families (the examples given are overtly family related), but it could be useful for other groups of people to stay in touch (like classmates working on a project together). While business users will probably still rely on Exchange, I can see where this sort of funcationality would be really beneficial for a family of Windows Phone users to keep track of everyone’s schedule.

Conclusions

Microsoft has taken some important steps towards creating a competitive operating system, but they are still far from reaching parity with Android and iOS. The lack of apps, subpar multitasking, and abysmal notification system are three major issues that Windows Phone has faced since its launch. The app situation is improving, but I wouldn’t call it hopeful. Huge parts of the operating system feel like they were designed for Windows 8 on a desktop because they require so much visual area, which leads to little content and lots of blank space (which is also an issue in many native Windows 8 apps).

Windows Phone feels like a suped up feature phone with full access to the web and a few apps. For users who are loosely connected to others through social networks, want a decent camera, and don’t play a lot of games on their phone, Windows Phone could be a great solution. For most people, however, Windows Phone is simply too different from the competition. It’s not that people won’t appreciate the look and feel of Windows Phone (in fact I think most people would enjoy it), but rather that Windows Phone behaves irrationally compared to industry standard UI paradigms and lacks important apps.

Like I said the last time I reviewed Windows Phone, I would love for a third operating system to truly compete with Android and iOS, but Windows Phone simply is not that operating system right now. Microsoft may have incredibly deep pockets to keep investing into Windows Phone, but the longer it takes for them to reach parity, the more users are choosing different ecosystems. As it becomes increasingly more difficult to leave an ecosystem and as we continue our march towards smartphone ubiquity, Microsoft is going to have a much harder time penetrating the market in any significant way.

When trying to enter an established market there is a temptation to do something totally different, but making something too different means having to retrain users. The shift from a command-line interface to a graphic user interface meant having to retrain users how to use computers. Smartphones required a similar retraining, with iOS setting the ground work and Android following along shortly thereafter. While there are important differences between Android and iOS, both follow the same basic UI patterns and ideas. Microsoft elected to take a radically different path which enabled them to stand out from the pack, but it also created a larger barrier to entry than iOS or Android present to the average user. If Windows 8 tablets take the tablet market by storm then Windows Phone will undoubtedly feel more natural to more users, but until then it faces an uphill battle in reeducating users how to use a smartphone.

It is discouraging that after two years of trying Microsoft still has yet to really break into the market, but the reality is that Microsoft has not put in the work it needs to in order to make Windows Phone a success. Microsoft is going to have to work much, much harder if they want to push themselves into an already crowded market. Perhaps by the launch of Windows Phone 9 Microsoft will finally have a competitive operating system.

*Editor’s note – Yes, this is a post about Windows Phone. And yes, this is an Android site. We also like to look closely at the competition and share our thoughts on it. No, we aren’t going to start covering Windows Phone or iOS or Blackberry on a regular basis, but when something new comes out, we typically like to check it out.

Yesterday afternoon, the official Windows Phone Twitter account Tweeted the message we have included above. They asked for “Android malware horror” stories of yours, in an attempt to highlight one of the fake overblown problems that security companies and the media invented for Android. If your story was the best/worst (whatever that means), then they may have a “get-well present” for you. We’re assuming that means a free Windows Phone.

Unfortunately, for Microsoft, the campaign hasn’t exactly gone as planned. They are certainly generating buzz with it, but almost none of it is positive for Windows Phone.

Here are a few of our favorite Tweets from users who had some fun with this #DroidRage hashtag.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2012/12/05/microsofts-new-droidrage-twitter-campaign-against-android-backfires/feed/93Quick First Look at the HTC 8X and Windows Phone 8http://www.droid-life.com/2012/11/21/quick-first-look-at-the-htc-8x-and-windows-phone-8/
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/11/21/quick-first-look-at-the-htc-8x-and-windows-phone-8/#commentsWed, 21 Nov 2012 22:33:43 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=90057Quick First Look at the HTC 8X and Windows Phone 8 is a post from: Droid Life
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As a community that focuses 99.9% of its time on Android, even I can admit that it’s never a bad time to look across the table and see what the competition is up to. And that’s exactly why we’re taking a look at the HTC 8X, the new Windows Phone 8 device that is available on Verizon. Don’t worry, we aren’t changing the name of the site any time soon, we’re just spying on our neighbors who have new toys to play with.

In the future, we may do a full review of Windows Phone 8, but for now, we just wanted to give everyone a taste of what Microsoft and HTC have been up to. Windows Phone 8 has come a long way, and improved greatly over Windows Phone 7. We now have support for HD displays and NFC, better and more customizable live tiles, a revamped home screen, notifications on the lock screen, support for multi-core processors, a better keyboard, an upgraded camera app, and a more robust Windows Phone store.

I spent some time with the previous versions of Windows Phone 7 on occasions, but none of them impressed me enough to write up a post on it. Windows Phone 8 has managed to impress me enough to get me to talk about it with all of you. Ready to go all metro?

Windows Phone 8 is official, as are the devices it runs on, so it only makes sense that the marketing campaign for this new mobile OS would kick into high gear. You may remember last year’s Windows Phone marketing campaign called “Smoked by Windows Phone.” Actually, wasn’t there a controversy surrounding that? Indeed there was. This year’s campaign is similar, only the name is a bit more tame as “Meet Your Match.”

During these spots, “Ben” talks to regular ol’ folks and asks them what type of phone they own and what kinds of activities they do with it. Most say that they take pictures or text or venture into social networks, all of which are right up Windows Phone’s alley for showing off its tricks. Windows Phone is built around performing everyday tasks at ultra-fast speeds, thanks to shortcuts they have pre-built into the OS.

The funny thing about this campaign, is that they aren’t exactly going after the cream of the crop of Android phones. Take the two videos we’ve included for example, where the competition is a 2-year old HTC Inspire 4G and a MyTouch of some sort. Spoiler alert! They couldn’t keep up with the phones built in 2012.

I will say, though, that I do like a lot of what Windows Phone 8 does. In fact, I have a Lumia 822 sitting on my desk now. The UI is beautiful and you can accomplish everyday tasks in seconds.The problem with it that I have (and most of you would as well), is that the app ecosystem is beyond lacking. Think back to 2009 when Android had only a couple of the top apps on iOS. Windows Phone is still stuck in that period, only it’s 2012.

I’m still hoping to get a hold of a Windows Phone 8X at some point and will more than likely do a review of it. This 822 just isn’t worth your time.

If you haven’t cruised over to the Android Developers site in a while, I recommend that you do, as it has been completely overhauled and includes all sorts of fun information. The site is much more beautifully designed now, easy to navigate, and should help all developers create more fantastic Android apps going forward. But even if you aren’t a developer, you are bound to learn something about Android that you didn’t previously know.

With that said, we couldn’t help but get a laugh out of the “Pure Android” page at the bottom of the “Patterns” column in the “Design” section of the site. The focus is on making Android apps look nothing like their cross-platform counterparts. It’s an entire section dedicated to helping developers create apps that fit the Android platform, rather than being exact copies of their versions for iOS or Windows Phone.

It’s funny because many of these design tips have been brought up in the ongoing battle between Samsung and Apple. Take the icon sets for example. Google is reminding developers that there is a specific set of icons that they should be using when developing apps for Android. While it may be easier to create one app design for all platforms, it can lead to an inconsistent experience as each OS behaves differently.

Now, that doesn’t mean that they want apps that look absolutely nothing like an app from another OS. In fact, they still want your branding to be front a center, however, they don’t want you to carry over rounded buttons, bottom fixed action bars, labeled back buttons, etc.

All jokes aside, if developers do follow these guidelines, it will lead to a much more consistent experience on Android, something we have begged for.

According to a new report from the IDC, iOS and Android accounted for 85% of all smartphones shipped during Q2, which is a phenomenal percentage. To no surprise, Samsung accounted for about 44% of all Android smartphones shipped and actually totaled in more combined product sold than the next 7 Android OEM’s combined. Do work, Samsung.

In total, Android accounted for 68% of all smartphones shipped globally while iOS held a mere 17%. As with any major release from Apple, those numbers are sure to get a nice boost as they prepare to launch their newest iPhone next month. On a sadder note, while Android numbers grow bigger and healthier, it means that Windows and BlackBerry are not sharing the same success, accounting for just 4.8% and 3.5% of all shipments during the second quarter of 2012. Ouch.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/08/q2-android-accounts-for-68-of-worlds-smartphone-shipments/feed/29Is the End Near for Android? [Opinion]http://www.droid-life.com/2012/04/27/is-the-end-near-for-android-opinion/
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/04/27/is-the-end-near-for-android-opinion/#commentsFri, 27 Apr 2012 15:10:13 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=68001Is the End Near for Android? [Opinion] is a post from: Droid Life
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Lately Business Insider (BI) has been announcing the imminent death of Android based on iPhone and iPad sales, reported disinterest in the platform by developers, and upset manufacturers. According to a handful of their writers, Android is poised to lose market share to both iOS and Windows Phone. Is the end near for Android?

The Tablet Problem

A couple of these writers are right to point out that the continued great sales of the iPhone and the iPad spell trouble for Android. While Android has continued to hold its own in the phone space despite carriers like Verizon selling more iPhones than all Android phones combined for two quarters, Android has been a disaster in the tablet space. Despite two major versions of Android for tablets, consumers have not taken to Google’s vision of how a tablet should look and feel. Based on analysts’ estimates, the Kindle Fire is the best selling Android tablet with 54% of the Android tablet market.

Why hasn’t Android been successful in the tablet space like it has been in the phone space? BI rightly identifies that Apple partnering with AT&T exclusively likely had much to do with Android’s success, but the tablet market is not the phone market. I am convinced that Android has not been successful in the tablet space because Android is significantly better on phones compared to tablets. The reason people are buying Fires is because they are cheap and the UI is dirt simple if inelegant. I cannot emphasize enough how certain I am that the main reason people buy Fires is because of the price, not the quality of the product. People are buying the Fire over a Galaxy Tab or Transformer because it is cheaper and good enough. So why are people buying iPads over Tabs and Transformers? Because at that price the iPad has a better ecosystem and experience.

So how does Google break into the tablet space? Make a product that is significantly better than the iPad. This isn’t rocket science. People aren’t buying Android tablets because they are around the same price as the iPad, which offers a better experience. Honeycomb was rushed, jittery, and buggy. Google should have waited to release it. ICS is gorgeous on phones, but just as disjointed as Honeycomb on tablets. The Kindle Fire may be the best selling Android tablet, but that doesn’t make it a strong competitor with the iPad. The only way to fight the iPad is with a better product. Why did consumers buy the DROID instead of a Blackberry or a Touch Pro2 or Pre Plus? Because the DROID offered an obviously superior experience. Now that Android and iOS are in parity on phones, Google needs to ensure that the Android tablet ecosystem and experience are in parity or give up on tablets.

Disinterested Developers

BI argues that developers are becoming less interested in Android based on Instagram trying to sell itself for $500 million before the Android version was released, thereby insisting that it was valuable enough without an Android version. Louis goes even further, arguing that developers will soon be leaving Android for Windows Phone. Both of these arguments are insane to me.

BI readily admits that the massive number of Instagram downloads on Android influenced Facebook’s decision to double Instagram’s initial evaluation, but he doesn’t give it enough credit. It’s one thing to pay more than the company is supposed to be worth, but to double the value is significant. Facebook has a ton of money, but that doesn’t mean it can just throw $1 billion around without consequence. Facebook clearly recognized that with an Android app it could reach far more users (and ensure that it would control Instagram instead of Twitter).

Based on BI’s own numbers, interest in Android development has hardly waned while Windows Phone and iOS have plateaued and Blackberry has plummeted. In general Android users don’t buy as many apps as iPhone users, but because of Android’s volume of users developers are still able to make money through ad sales. While developers may be more interested in platforms where their apps are actually purchased, the alternatives are two: iOS and Windows Phone. Many developers write apps for both iOS and Android to cover the largest number of users, but I can’t imagine why developers would start to favor Windows Phone over Android. Even if Windows Phone users were more prone to buy apps than Android users, the insignificant number of Windows Phone users don’t justify the switch in emphasis.

Motoroogle

The final threat to Android is manufacturer discontent with Google buying Motorola. According to BI’s sources, manufacturers are considering forking Android or leaving for Windows Phone to avoid favoritism by Google towards Motorola. The question is, why would manufacturers like HTC and Samsung try their luck with forking or leaving Android?

While the Fire has been successful, it hasn’t been successful because it was a forked version of Android. It has been successful because a company that people actually recognized sold a cheap Android tablet. Forking Android wouldn’t solve any manufacturers worries – they’d still have to compete with Motorola and Google on top of competing with Apple. Forking Android may allow manufacturers to make their skins more integrated, but it would mean relying on the Amazon App Store (or their own forked app store). Unless forking Android meant creating an obviously superior experience then it doesn’t make sense for manufacturers to fork Android.

The even more insane option would be for manufacturers to leave Android, the only thing making them money, for Windows Phone. Windows Phone doesn’t have a large user base and doesn’t offer an ecosystem or experience that is competitive with iOS or Android. More importantly, shifting to Microsoft puts manufacturers in the same situation they’re facing with Google thanks to the Nokia-Microsoft partnership (Microkia? Nokisoft?). Why be in the same situation with fewer users? Even if Google does favor Motorola, manufacturers don’t have any appealing alternatives to Android under Google’s approval.

Is Android coming to an end? Not at all, but that doesn’t mean that Google has an easy road ahead of them. The reality is that the issues brought up by Business Insider are real (blown out of proportion, but real). Google needs to do better in the tablet space, maintain good developer relations, and continue to support its OEM partners. iOS is a growing threat in the phone space and continues to dominate in the tablet space. Developers may need to support Android now, but its possible that Microsoft or Google (or another party) could disrupt the ecosystem. Google also needs to be careful with how it uses Motorola so that it doesn’t upset the Android ecosystem by trying to compete with its partners. Android has a long future ahead of it, but it is a future lined with problems that need to be addressed by Google.

Since CES, Microsoft has been running a campaign to raise awareness for their Windows Phone lineup called “Smoked by Windows Phone.” It is a challenge of sorts that asks you to enter your Android or other phone into a battle with a Windows Phone to see if it can beat it at simple every day tasks. Tasks could be to find directions to a near by 4-star restaurant or snap a picture and upload it to Facebook. Fun, right? Not so much for the owner of a Galaxy Nexus who stopped by his local Microsoft store this weekend to take the challenge.

Within the last week, Microsoft upped the bounty for their “Smoked” challenge, offering up a $1000 special edition laptop to those that could beat Windows Phone or the opportunity to trade in your current phone for a Windows Phone should you lose. The owner of Skattertech took his G-Nex in and won, according to his standards, but not so much according to the Microsoft store’s standards.

What was his test? Once he got to the front of the line of people taking the challenge, he was asked to power down his phone and then back up again to kill off background tasks. Then the task itself was for him to display weather on his phone from 2 different cities faster than the Windows Phone. Since he had disabled his lockscreen and had two widgets on his home screen showing weather in 2 different cities, all it took was the press of a button and he was done. The Windows Phone user on the other hand had to swipe away a lock screen, causing her to be a split second later than our friend with the Nexus.

So he won? Nope. He was told that he lost because the Windows Phone “displays the weather right there,” which I’m not even sure is an actual reason. A manager came over after a handful of questions from our Android friend and was told that he lost because he needed to display weather from 2 different cities in 2 different states, something that he claims was not made clear up front. He was never given his prize.

Update: Microsoft is doing the right thing now. Ben Rudolph, who runs the challenge in the video below, announced on Twitter that they will indeed award Skattertech with the $1000 laptop and a Windows Phone.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2012/03/26/galaxy-nexus-wins-smoked-by-windows-phone-challenge-microsoft-store-refuses-to-acknowledge-it/feed/122Windows Phone 7.5 – How Does it Compare to Android? [Opinion]http://www.droid-life.com/2012/02/02/windows-phone-7-5-how-does-it-compare-to-android-opinion/
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/02/02/windows-phone-7-5-how-does-it-compare-to-android-opinion/#commentsFri, 03 Feb 2012 00:55:58 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=60261Windows Phone 7.5 – How Does it Compare to Android? [Opinion] is a post from: Droid Life
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For the past week I’ve been reviewing the Samsung Focus S. I believe that competition drives innovation, so I love spending time with multiple devices and operating systems to see what works well and what doesn’t. I think most of us have spent some quality time with an iOS device and are aware of the competition it presents, but I’m guessing that most of us haven’t played with Windows Phone very much. So how does Windows Phone 7 stack up against Android?

Lock Screen
One of the most important things on a modern smartphone is the lock screen. I think this is one of the areas that Microsoft did really well. As you can see in the image above (the quality won’t be the best because WP7 doesn’t have an easy way to take screen shots), the lock screen gives the usual information at the top of the display (connectivity, battery), the time and date, and my next appointment. To unlock the device, you slide the lock screen upwards. The lock screen is simple, yet elegant.

Start Screen
The Start Screen is where the simplicity of Windows Phone really shines. If you use Launcher 7 then you should be fairly familiar with the appeal to Windows Phone’s Metro UI. Rather than have pages of widgets and app icons, Windows Phone highlights important applications and information through Live Tiles. The point of these Live Tiles is to give users quick information or to jump into an app’s feature or content more quickly. The calendar tile launches the app, shows me the date, and shows me an upcoming appointment. Another feature is pinning an album or a contact to Start for easy access. Sliding the start screen to the left reveals a list of all most of the apps installed on the device.

Multi-TaskingWindows Phone 7.5 introduced multi-tasking to the platform, though the implementation of multi-tasking is one of the worst I’ve seen on a modern smartphone. To access multi-tasking, you hold down the back button. At first I thought this was a strange implementation, but holding back to return to an app makes sense. What doesn’t make sense, however, is the limit to only six applications being stored for multi-tasking. Perhaps the most frustrating part of this limitation is that often times applications are duplicated in the list, as can be seen in the photo above (Internet Explorer is the middle and left option). To make matters worse, the only way to jump back into an application from where you left off is to use the back button. Opening the app from its Start icon re-launches the app, even if it’s been cached in multi-tasking. This needs to be improved upon greatly if Microsoft wants to compete with Android and iOS.

Applications
The selection of applications available for Windows Phone 7 is sparse at best. Though the Marketplace has 50,000 applications, many big name developers and apps are missing. Even the apps that are present often lack major features that are present in their Android and iOS counterparts. Twitter, for example, lacks push notifications (and good luck finding a third party app that compares to third party apps for Android). The YouTube app is just a shortcut to Internet Explorer. Many major apps like Facebook and last.fm were developed by Microsoft, demonstrating a lack of developer support for the platform. If Microsoft wants to succeed, they need to start pushing more of their cash in front of developers.

Gaming
Gaming is even more of a joke. Light games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja are available for $2.99 and more graphically intense games like Assassin’s Creed ($4.99) Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 ($6.99) are available. It’s a bit strange to me that these games are all more expensive than their Android and iOS counterparts. Perhaps the higher costs are developers’ way to make up for the low market share of Windows Phone. Another annoyance is how gaming is organized. Instead of listing your games along with other apps from the Start screen, games are collected in the Games hub. They can be pinned to the Start screen, but it’s still a sloppy implementation.

ProductivityWindows Phone comes with Microsoft Office built in. The Office apps work well for editing documents and spreadsheets and viewing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. OneNote, Microsoft’s premier note taking application, is also built in. The editor is very basic and you’re limited to local storage, Office 365, SharePoint, or SkyDrive to store files.

Email offers a decent experience with support for Exchange (shocking!), IMAP, and POP accounts. Surprisingly, Gmail is well integrated. Unlike iOS devices, selecting Gmail when setting up email will set up sync with email, contacts, and calendars (this can be done with iOS, but only by setting up Gmail as an Exchange account). That said, the application uses especially large fonts when viewing messages, making the browsing experience sub par (the relatively low resolution of Windows Phone devices may be influential as well).

Other productivity apps like Calendar and Messaging continue the same Metro trends of clean text and hyper-simplistic graphics. The Calendar application is similar to the email application in terms of giant fonts and restrictive resolutions, but unless your calendar is especially crowded it’ll get the job done. The messaging app is extremely simplistic, with white text boxed off in solid hues. It certainly isn’t flashy, but it also doesn’t look like Microsoft spent much time on it.

Major and Minor AnnoyancesThroughout the past week there have been a number of major and minor issues that have bothered me about Windows Phone. One of the more annoying issues is the volume level. Windows Phone has thirty (30!) different levels of volume. Try as I might, I had a hard time really telling the difference between 13 and 14. It’s a minor oversight, but it’s an annoying one.

Another minor issue is the inconsistency of the physical button’s functions. As I mentioned before, holding the back button to see your recently opened applications makes sense. Just hitting the back button functions almost identically to the Android back button. The Start button brings you back to the Start screen, but holding it launches voice command. Hitting the search button launches Bing. That’s it. Holding it does nothing. Hitting the search button in an app launches Bing. In other words, it’s a rarely used button. Hopefully in a future update Microsoft will allow the use of the search button for an in-app search.

A more critical issue is notifications. If you’re in the middle of an app, a bar with the notification will slide along the top of the screen and stay there for about ten seconds before going away forever. After the notification disappears, the lock screen will display a badge for the app and the app will have a numerical badge next to it if you’ve pinned it to the Start screen. There is no centralized place to see all of your notifications, which can be a bit maddening if you’re used to a modern operating system.

ConclusionsI honestly can’t imagine using a Windows Phone 7 device as my main phone for any extended period of time. The animations and scrolling are slick, the UI is cohesive, and the simplicity is attractive, but the overall experience is not on par with Android or iOS. Android offers a better experience in terms of apps (both availability and price), multi-tasking, notifications, service integration, gaming, and productivity. It doesn’t matter how fast your phone is if it’s lacking in so many areas. So many parts of the operating system feel unfinished or untouched that it’s honestly astounding to me that this is the second major release.

As I’ve said elsewhere, Windows Phone 7 feels like 21st MS-DOS. Microsoft says that the inspiration for Metro UI is “street and airport signage.” The signage inspiration is clear, but what isn’t clear is why Microsoft thought that reverting the majority of visual cues to text would provide a better experience to the overtly graphical interfaces found in Android and iOS. Even if the apps were there (and to be clear, there is a serious dearth of quality apps), there are so many part of Windows Phone 7 that still feel incomplete or not thought through. Why would you make the email text so big that you can only preview four to five messages on a screen without scrolling? Why limit multi-tasking to six applications? Why do applications relaunch if you slect them from the Start menu instead of the multi-tasking menu? Why doesn’t the email app replicate changes made on the server for IMAP connections? These are massive oversights that were possibly forgivable in the initial release, but to still have these issues in the second major version is incredible.

Tim Cook is right, Microsoft will keep trying. I’m glad they decided to start over with Windows Phone 7, but if they want to break into an already established industry, they need to offer a product that blows the competition out of the water. Microsoft does not have that product. For the foreseeable future the smartphone space is going to continue to be dominated by Apple and Google. That’s a disappointing sentence to write, but it’s the truth. I want more competition. More competition drives real innovation. Android would not be as polished as it is today if Apple hadn’t pushed the importance of design. iOS wouldn’t have the excellent notifications it has now if it weren’t for Android paving the way. I believe that Microsoft has some good ideas in Windows Phone 7, but if they really want to make an impact they need to do a lot better.